1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a system and method for binding processes in an e-commerce HUB. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for providing an open platform for e-commerce business transactions and a translation method for document exchange.
2. Description of the Related Art
E-commerce business transactions are conducted by the electronic interchange of business documents. Electronic documents may represent purchase orders, requests for bids, invoices, or an agreed acknowledgement of a receipt. Various standards exist for the definition and exchange of electronic documents. For example, Rosetta Net, cXML, and EDI are industry standards for electronic document exchange. Custom electronic exchange definitions also exist for specific businesses within a particular industry.
The complexity of electronic exchange definitions is increasing to enable trading partners to go beyond the simple exchange of documents. For example, trading partners may collaborate on additional subjects, such as supply chain management. A challenge with existing art is that trading partners pre-agree on a business process and may be confining themselves to a limited set of trading partners.
Applications are available that document, agree, and execute processes on a peer-to-peer basis between trading partners, such as Extricity Alliance and WebMethods. A challenge found with small businesses is they typically do not have the bargaining power to dictate trading processes and may have to support many processes in order to increase access to the market place.
What is needed, therefore, is an e-commerce platform that allows multiple document exchange definitions while providing a message collaboration trail.